


The Angler

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: 500 prompts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silver diverts himself with a little quiet fishing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Angler

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a '500 prompts' meme. Prompt 278, from [lost_spook](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook): "Crawling nightmare. - Silver"

To many people, it would have been a glorious day in North Wales: a lonely lake, high up in a secluded hanging valley, with the sunlit countryside stretching away below. To Milly King, it was boring and empty and her smartphone couldn't get a signal. Along with half the other teenagers on her trip, she was starting to get Facebook withdrawal symptoms. She almost regretted making such a fuss about the strained calf that had stopped her joining the rest of her group on a strenuous hike. In the end, boredom had driven her out to make her own investigation of the area surrounding their campsite, and a few minutes' walking had brought her to this lake. 

The incongruity of the man standing a little way back from the water struck her at once. She wouldn't have thought twice if he'd been dressed for hiking, or birdwatching, or cycling. Even a wizard or druid from the remote past would have seemed more at home. But there he was, slender, redheaded, clad in a pale grey suit, with a waistcoat that sparkled in the sunlight. Even his shoes were spotless — and looking ruefully at what the muddy path had done to her own trainers, Milly thought that might be the biggest mystery of all. 

His attention was fixed on something in the palm of his hand. At first Milly thought it was a phone — perhaps he'd found the one spot for ten miles where you could get a signal. That would certainly help to explain what he was doing there. But as she got closer, she could see that it looked more like a stack of seemingly identical washers that he was perpetually arranging and rearranging. 

He showed no sign of noticing her until she was almost close enough to touch him. Then he swung round abruptly. 

"Hello," he said. "Nice day." 

"Suppose so," Milly grudgingly admitted. "What you doing, then?" 

"Fishing." He followed his remark with a bright smile that Milly took to mean "and explain that if you can." 

"But you got no rods or nets or nothing. How can you catch stuff?" 

"Don't assume that something you can't see isn't there." He looked her up and down. "Would you like to see me catch something?" 

Milly considered the question. He was a nutter, definitely, but he was the only interesting thing she'd encountered all day. 

"Yeah," she said. "OK." 

"Then stand very still." 

He turned to face her, and with a sudden jerk of his hand tossed the washers into the air above her. As they fell, they glowed and expanded, linking until they formed a roughly globelike cage around her. She tried to raise her hand, to test the strength of the silver mesh, but found she couldn't move a muscle. 

"Now," the impossible fisherman said. "Let's make sure you've got a good view." 

The cage spun until Milly was facing the lake. The mesh thinned into near-invisibility, though its grip on her muscles remained as strong as ever. The mysterious visitor appeared in front of the cage, and tapped it once or twice. 

"I won't be far away," he said. "See you later." 

"Hang on a moment!" Milly protested. She could talk, it seemed, even if she couldn't move. "What have you done to me? What's all this in aid of, anyway?" 

"You've got certain characteristics — quite rare in this part of the world. They make you ideally suited for the position." 

"What position?" 

"Bait," the man said, and vanished like a Cheshire cat. 

"Come back here!" Milly shouted. Her voice echoed from the valley walls, but no answer came. Pinned in position, helpless, there was nothing she could do but wait for whatever would happen next. 

Her wait was not a long one. V-shaped ripples appeared on the surface of the lake, the arrow-shaped wake of something speeding through the water just below the surface, and headed directly towards her. At first she could make out nothing at the apex of the waves, except a vague suggestion of black scales. But as the source of the ripples came closer, presumably into shallower water, more of it came little by little into view. In general outline, it resembled a serpent, five or so feet in diameter. How long it was, Milly couldn't guess — there might be half a mile of it coiled up at the bottom of the lake. Its body was covered with scales that were either black or very dark green. Milly hardly noticed the four short, curved horns that crowned the creature's head, or its malevolent, slitted eyes; its huge mouth, gaping to expose row after row of teeth, was demanding all of her attention. 

Milly had, occasionally, had dreams where she was pinned to the spot, unable to move. This was infinitely worse. All her senses seemed to be intensifed. If she'd had the inclination, she could have picked out every scale on the monster's hide, and as it oozed closer the stink of it filled her nostrils. It had slowed its approach, seemingly not as well suited to motion on the land as in the water, but its approach was no less inexorable for that. 

The monster, its gaze still locked on her, crept closer still. Its mouth, already wide, gaped wider, easily wide enough to swallow her in one gulp. Milly tried to look away, close her eyes, anything to make the nightmare go away, but found her body wouldn't obey her even to that extent. The terrified scream that was building in her throat came out as a mere whimper. 

The creature's jaws closed around Milly. As they touched the barely-visible cage surrounding her, there was a quiet _pop_ , as of a bubble bursting. Milly found herself thrown backwards, landing on her back. The creature loomed over her, its head swinging from side to side. 

For long seconds Milly waited, frozen in terror, staring up at the creature. When it made no move to attack her, she tried to move, and found she could. The force gripping her seemed to have evaporated; she wriggled away crabwise, unwilling to turn away from the monster. 

"Here," the familiar voice said. "Take my hand." 

Without thinking, Milly reached out and was pulled to her feet. The fisherman — who clearly wasn't a man at all — had reappeared as mysteriously as he'd previously vanished. 

"What do you think?" he said, gesturing at the gigantic serpent as it thrashed from side to side, the mesh of glowing silver rings tightening around it. "I think the local term for something like that is _afanc._ " 

"It... It..." Milly took a few moments to get her thoughts in order. "It was going to _eat_ me! You were gonna kill me just to catch that thing!" 

The man shook his head. "The lure was designed to keep you in one piece. No device is perfect, of course, but it's quite a simple principle. The chances of anything going wrong were remote." 

He made a gesture. The mesh, already contracting, imploded, seemingly taking the _afanc_ with it. Suddenly, there was nothing there except the lake, the cliffs, the view. If it wasn't for the churned-up area of ground where the monster had crawled out of the lake, Milly might have thought she'd hallucinated the whole thing. 

The man held out his hand to Milly. 

"Would you like it?" he said. 

Milly looked down at the small, silver brooch he was holding. In every detail, it was a perfect model of the _afanc,_ its eyes picked out in emeralds. She pushed his hand away. 

"I don't want to see that ——ing thing ever again!" she shouted, turned, and ran for it, heedless of her strained calf. 

_Fair enough._ Silver raised his hand, as if to throw the brooch back into the lake, then seemed to think better of it and pinned it to his own lapel. 

_After all,_ he mused, _you never know when something like that might come in useful._


End file.
